First original observation of the new year: it would be better to live one’s life under a continual state of improvement than make once-per-year spectacular promises that are never likely to be kept.
There you go. I’m sure, nobody has ever thought about that before, ever.
My resolutions from 2013 have been stuck up on the fridge for three years now. You will note that I did so well with them that I neglected to make any resolutions at all in 2014, and that they were so well thought out that it didn’t seem worth doing anything other than reusing them for 2015.
I’m hoping that I can shame myself into action by reviewing these in retrospect, so:
- Tick. Done this. Finally. Will write more about it in due course.
- Cross. Abject fail. I started going for runs again, on about five separate occasions. To the hilarity of people in the Village Pub, Village Shop etc. as they watched me go past. But I’ve not been able to reach that point where it isn’t all hurty. And I have got to that sort of point where I walk the four hundred yards or so to the Village Shop and think ‘oh good, I have done my exercise for the day’. Which probably isn’t that healthy an attitude, especially when I walk out of there with a coffee and a big Pork Pie.
- Cautious tick with a cross through it. I have very much tried to be a better parent rather than my initial inspiration, Mr Von Trapp in the early bits of the film, with the whistle and stuff. My main problem has always been that I can’t quite get to grips with the fact that they’re young and stuff, so I will shout things like ‘well why didn’t you set the boiler to come on for a further hour if you were going to leave the tap running and use all the hot water?!?’ and my son will look at me with sad and confused five year-old eyes before booting up the Childline app on the iPad.
- Another sort of ticky cross. It is quite easy to become insular when you write for a living, which is one of the reasons that I spend less time writing for fun (or messing around on social media) these days. You need things that will get you out of the house and into the fresh air. I have been appointed captain of the snooker team!!! So that has helped.
- Cross. This needs to go on the 2016 list.